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tv   Power Lunch  CNBC  August 30, 2013 1:00pm-2:01pm EDT

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we will not repeat that moment. accordingly, we have taken unprecedented steps to declassify and make facts available to people who can judge for themselves, but still in order to protect sources and methods, some of what we know will only be released to members of congress the representatives of the american people. that means that some things we do know we can't talk about publicly. so what do we really know that we can talk about? well, we know that the assad regime has the largest chemical weapons program in the entire middle east. we know that the regime has used those weapons multiple times this year, and has used them on a smaller scale but still it has used them against its own
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people, including not very far from where last wednesday's attack happened. we know that the regime was specifically determined to rid the damascus suburbs of the opposition, and it was frustrated that it hadn't succeeded in doing so. we know that for three days before the attack the syrian regime's chemical weapons personnel were on the ground, in the area, making preparations, and we know that the syrian regime elements were told to prepare for the attack by putting on gas masks and taking precautions associated with chemical weapons. we know that these were specific instructions. we know where the rockets were launched from, and at what time. we know where they landed and when. we know rockets came only from
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regime-controlled areas and went only to opposition-controlled or contested neighborhoods, and we know, as does the world, that just 90 minutes later all hell broke loose in the social media. with our own eyes we have seen the thousands of reports from 11 separate sites in the damascus suburbs, all of them show and report victims with breathing difficulties, people twitching with spasms, coughing, rapid heartbeats, foaming at the mouth, unconsciousness and death, and we know it was ordinary syrian citizens who reported all of these horrors, and just as important we know what the doctors and the nurses who treated them didn't report. not a scratch, not a shrapnel wound, not a cut, not a gunshot
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wound. we saw rows of deadli lined up burial shrouds. we saw children side by side on a hospital floor all of them dead from assad's gas and surrounding by parents and grandparents who had suffered the same fate. the united states government now knows that at least 1,429 syrians were killed in this attack, including at least 426 children. even the first responders, the doctors, nurses and medics who tried to save them, they became victims themselves. we saw them gasping for air,
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terrified that their own lives were in danger. this is the indiscriminate, inconceivable horror of chemical weapons. this is what assad did to his own people. we also know many disturbing details about the aftermath. we know that a senior regime official who knew about the attack confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the regime, reviewed the impact and actually was afraid that they would be discovered. we know this. and we know what they did next. i personally called the foreign minister of syria, and i said to him if as you say your nation has nothing to hide, then let the united nations in immediately and give the inspectors the unfettered access so they have the opportunity to
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tell your story. instead, for four days they shelled the neighborhood in order to destroy evidence, bomb boarding block after block at a rate four times higher than they had over the previous ten days, and when the u.n. inspectors finally gained access, that access as we now know was restricted and controlled. in all of these things that i have listed, in all of these things that we know, all of them, the american intelligence community has high confidence, high confidence this is common sense. this is evidence. these are facts. so the primary question is really no longer what do we know? the question is what are we collectively, what are we in the
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world going to do about it? as previous storms in history have gathered, when unspeakable crimes were within our power to stop them, we have been warned against the temptations of looking the other way. history is full of leaders who have warned against inaction, indifference and especially against silence when it mattered most. our choices then in history had great consequences, and our choice today has great consequences. it matters that nearly 100 years ago in direct response to the utter horror and inhumanity of world war i that the civilized world agreed that chemical weapons should neverin used again. that was the world's resolve then, and that began nearly a century of effort to create a clear red line for the international community. it matters today that we are
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working as an international community to rid the world of the worst weapons. that's why we've signed agreement likes the start treaty, the new start treaty and the chemical weapons convention which more than 180 countries including iran, iraq and lebanon have signed on to. it matters to our security and the security of our allies. it matters to israel. it matters to our close friends jordan, turkey and lebanon, all of whom live just a stiff breeze away from damascus. it matters to all of them where the syrian chemical weapons are, and if unchecked they can cause even greater death and destruction to those friends. and it matters deeply to the credibility and the future interests of the united states of america and our allies. it matters because a lot of other countries whose policies
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challenge these international norms are watching. they are watching. they want to see whether the united states and our friends mean what we say. it is directly related to our credibility and whether countries still believe the united states, when it says something. they are watching to see if syria can get away with it because then maybe they, too, can put the world at greater risk. and make no mistake, in an increasingly complex world of sectarian and religious extremist violence what, we choose to do or not do matters in real ways to our own security. some cite the risk of doing things, but we need to ask what is the risk of doing nothing? it matters because if we choose to live in a world where a thug and a murder er like bashar assd
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can gas thousands of his own people with impunity, even after the united states and our allies said no and then the world does nothing about it, there will be no end to the tested of our resolve and the dangers that will flow from those others who believe that they can do as they will. this matters also beyond the limits of syria's borders. it is about whether iran which itself has been a victim of chemical weapons attacks will now feel emboldened in the absence of action to obtain nuclear weapons. it is about hezbollah and north korea and any other dictator that might contemplate the use of weapons of mass destruction. will they remember the assad regime was stopped from those weapons current or future use, or will they remember that the
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world stood aside and created impunity? so our concern is not just about some far off land oceans away. that's not what this is about. our concern with the caution of the defenceless people of syria is about choices that will directly affect our role in the world and our interests in the world. it is also profoundly about who we are. we are the united states of america. we are the country that has tried, not always successfully, but always tried to honor a set of universal values around which we have organized our lives and our aspirations. this crime against conshebs, this crime against humanity, this crime against the most fundamental principles of international community, against the norm of the international
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community, this matters to us, and it matters to who we are, and it matters to leadership and to our credibility in the world? my friends, it matters here if nothing is done. it matters if the world speaks out in condemnation and then nothing happens? america should feel confident and gratified that we are not alone in our condemnation, and we are not alone in our will to do something about it and to act. the world is speaking out and many friends stand ready to respond. the arab league pledged, quote, to hold the syrian regime fully responsible for this crime. the organization for islamic cooperation condemned the regime and said we needed, quote, to hold the syrian government legally and morally accountable
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for this haynous crime. turkey said there is no doubt that the regime is responsible. our old est ally, the french, said the regime, quote, committed this vile action and it is an outrage to use weapons that the community has banned for the last 90 years in all international conventions. the australian prime minister said he didn't want history to record that we were, quote, a party to turning such a blind eye. so now that we know what we know, the question we must all be asking is what will we do? let me emphasize, president obama, we in the united states, we believe in the united nations, and we have great respect for the brave inspectors who endured regime gunfire and obstructions to their investigation, but as ban ki-moon, the secretary-general
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has said again and again, the u.n. investigation will not affirm would used these chemical weapons. that is not the mandate of the u.n. investigation. they will only affirm whether such weapons were used. by the definition of their own mandate, the u.n. can't tell us anything that we haven't shared with you this afternoon or that we don't already know, and because of the guaranteed russian obstructionism of any action through the u.n. security council, the u.n. cannot galvanize the world to act as it should, so let me be clear. we will continue talking to the congress, talking to our allies and most importantly talking to the american people. president obama will ensure that
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the united states of america makes its own decisions based on our values and interests and on its own time line. we know after a decade of conflict the american people are tired of war. believe me, i am, too. but fatigue does not absolve us of our responsibility. just longing for peace does not necessarily bring it about, and history would judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turned a blind eye to a dictator's wanton use of weapons of mass destruction against all warnings, against all common understanding of decency. these things we do know. we also know that we have a president who does what he says that he will do, and he has said very clearly that whatever decision he makes in syria, it will bear no resemblance to
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afghanistan, iraq or even libya. it will not involve any boots on the ground. it will not be open-ended, and it will not assume responsibility for a civil war that is already well under way. the president has been clear. any action that he might decide to take will be limited in tailored response to ensure that a despot's brutal and flagrant use of chemical weapons is held accountable and ultimately, ultimately, we are committed, we remain committed, tea believe it's the primary objective is to have a diplomatic process that can resolve this through negotiation because we know there is no ultimate military solution. it has to be political. it has to happen at the negotiating table, and we are deeply committed to getting there. so that is what we know.
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that's what the leaders of congress now know, and that's what the american people need to know. and that is at the core of the decisions that must now be made for the security of our country and for the promise of a planet where the world's most heinous weapons must never again be used against the world's most vulnerable people. thank you very much. >> secretary of state john kerry laying out in very graphic detail the atrocities that the united states now believes to have the facts upon, the chemical weapons attack and making the case, it seems, for u.s. military action. the president still considering that. we have john horwood with us right now in washington. he's been listening to the speech, and my partner simon hobbs is down on the floor of the new york stock exchange. john, as i mentioned, graphic details, the secretary of state laying out for us just a short while ago, but it seems as though the administration is in
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a very difficult position with a no vote for action in britain. the arab logue, although condemning syria's actions, not backing any u.s. intervention in syria, and the president himself may have gotten himself into a difficult situation by using the red line phrase so early on in this conflict. >> well, that's right, but, look, john kerry in that speech did everything but announce the timing and the targets of u.s. military action. it's very clear from what he said that that is the path that the u.s. is now on. he talked about on your point about the vote in the house of commons in london, he said the united states makes its own decisions on its own timetables based on what's in our national interests. he also said and referred to the decisions that must now be made. what that tells me is we're on a very short time frame for something happening here. remember, the president, sue, goes to russia on tuesday for an international economic meeting, and i would be very surprised if
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we have not seen military action by tuesday when the president leaves given the severity of john kerry's remarks. he said the question is no longer what do we know, the question is what do we do, and he, therefore, is very highly raised the stakes and the expectations for the united states to act. >> of course, at the same time saying he won't wait efetively for the u.n. weapons inspectors or for what might happen in the security council on wednesday of next week so no boots on the ground. it will not be open-ended. they say that they will not be taking part or taking responsibility for civil war, that was kerry's words, already under way. it will be limited and tailored. it still comes back, to john, the huge reservations that even those senior members within the military have of the unintended consequences of this, around we don't really have any more information on that, do we? >> you're exactly right. the military does have very grave reservations.
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you know, there tends to be a philosophy of if we're in, we're all in, and you can't be a little bit pregnant in a situation like this. we also have the issue of the views of the american people. nbc poll out, how many people approved strikes against syria in response to the use of chemical weapons. only 42% said they supported that, 50% said no. if we say that it was going to be a strike of missiles launched from navy ships which makes the distinction from sending troops to syria, the support went up to 50%, but, still, at best the american public is quite divided on this. only 21% of the american people said they thought it was in the united states national interest and 79%, simon, said the president should get permission from congress, and it does not appear that the administration is on a track to get that permission. >> exactly. >> congress does not come back until the 9th of september. >> john, if i can, first of all, let our viewers know we've seen
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big whipsaws for those not following the screen in the dow jones industrial average. we were down 77 points and moved to up 17 and right now we're down about 25, and we've seen a similar whipsaw in the crude oil market. john, does the president not face quite a bit of political risk and reputational risk? a lot of people felt he misused the red line line early on and that has put him in this difficult situation when he said the use of chemical weapons early on would be a red line in the sand, and now we find ourselves without the backing of allies like great britain, and it seems as though he's forced to do something because of the way he spoke early on in this conflict. >> well, forgetting how the president spoke, the issue is on a substantive basis do we want to try to be in a position of enforcing the international norm against the use of chemical weapons. the united states says yes and
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john kerry spoke about the example going back years in world war i where you had mustard gas being used and a tremendous backlash against that and the development of the international norm against chemical weapons. that's really the core issue underlying this, and as for reputational risk, the office of the president of the united states is nothing by reputational risk. >> oh, absolutely. >> there are risks if we act, risks if we don't act and clearly this president is on a track to deciding that the risks of not act iing militarily are greater than the ones we face if they strike. >> you mentioned that the president is scheduled to go to st. petersburg and meet with mr. putin. a lot of people who feel on principle he should not make that trip given the relationship that we now have with russia and the fact that if indeed the united states does strike and presumably it would strike before the president leaves the united states if he does go on that trip, that this might
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become a regional conflict involving russia, involving iran. what are you hearing on that front? >> well, remember, the meeting individually with vladamir putin, which was to take place in moscow off the g-20 in st. petersburg has already been cancelled, so this is not an individual or bilateral meeting that the president is going to. i would expect him to continue to keep that unless something very unexpected occurs over the weekend that would cause him to -- to change his plan. >> john, stay with us, if you works our focus is to look at out-of-state markets. let's bring in allison armstrong who is a cnbc contributor. talk to us about what's happening in the oil markets in response to secretary of state's speech. it seemed at one stage the equity markets were more responsive to what he was saying than perhaps oil and gold. would you agree with it? >> i was sitting here listening to the speech and watching the
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ticker board and as the secretary was being more and more forceful we saw the brent crude market trade up into positive territory, but it's now moved back to down about 70 cents, so, you know, the market was closely watching the words. when he started to speak about the will of the united states and the imperative that we do something about this, that was when the market moved up the most sharply. i think in the overall mag toured of his speech on the markets we're about where we were before he started to speak, but i think that we're -- given the forcefulness and the clear sort of vision that he laid out and the fact that we're going into a long weekend here when a lot of different things could happen, i would expect to see these markets rally higher into the close and end up in positive territory. >> you don't think that people who are already positioned for this, that this was well telegraphed enough? >> yes, absolutely. what happened in the uk overnight was not well
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telegraphed and that's why we found ourselves so much down here this morning but given, again, the fact, more than anything that we're going into a long weekend with this potential in front of us, i think, you know, the markets will stay very well supported. >> everybody stay in place. we'll take a quick break and we're monitoring the market's response to the late-breaking developments after the address from secretary of state john kerry. back in just a moment with more on "power lunch." here at fidelity, we give you
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if you take a look at the chart of the dow jones industrial average, can you see as the secretary of state was outlining the situation in syria and the possible military response from the united states, we did see huge whipsaws in the market with the dow jones industrial average now down 33. we were up 77 and jumped up a positive 17. the market is down a quarter of a percent. joining us on the phone is ambassador kattouf, former ambassador to syria in the years 2001 to 2003. welcome back. >> thank you.
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>> you were able to hear the sent's remarks. first of all, your reaction to them. >> i think it was quite masterful. i think the secretary laid out the case for why america needs to take limited action very well. i think he played the and he was dealt about as well as it could be played, and i think the administration is well served by having him. >> do you agree with our john harwood who said that basically he laid out not in we would go in with a military strike but when and perhaps sooner rather than later? >> absolutely. i think everything your commentators john harwood and the other gentleman said is correct. this has to be done quickly for all the reasons that were stated. it has to be effective but not to the extent that it entangles us in the civil war. it's true that the law of unintended consequences often
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prevails in the middle east but in this case i'm betting that the syrians and the iranians and the russians don't do anything that would draw the u.s. in. >> it sounded as though also secretary kerry laid out the case for the united states as he said making his own decisions and what we are collectively and the world going to do about it, but following that statement he seemed to indicate that the united states, despite the no vote in great britain and despite the lack of the arab league support for a strike, that the united states would be willing to go it alone. was that your interpretation as well? >> certainly was. look, as you and others indicated we're going to be criticized either way. i would much -- if i'm president obama, i'd be -- much refer to be criticized for acting without proper international legal sanctions than for appearing weak and feckless, and then having iran, north korea and others take advantage, maybe even encouraging israel to think
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ma the u.s. cannot be dependant upon so we have to unilaterally deal with the possible acquisition of iran by a nuclear weapons capability. >> i'm interested in your thought that you did not think that russia or iran would retaliate or become involved. why do you feel that way? >> i feel that way because for russia it's not an issue of such import that they would want to get involved more with us. they like to make life uncomfortable for us. they like to embarrass us, but they are not looking for an all-out confrontation with the u.s. over this, and as far as iran goes, they have enough internal problems. they, you know, the u.s. navy, the fifth fleet, we have a lot of force on station in the persian gulf region and beyond. it would crazy for them.
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>> given the fact that the president is scheduled to meet with mr. putin next week, do you agree with those who think that given the strong statement that the secretary just gave us, that basically the attack would come sooner rather than later and certainly well before the president has to leave the country? >> i do. it made it clear that the u.n. inspectors are not going to say who was responsible for the use of chemical agents, and he's right, and, therefore, there's no reason to wait. we're not going to get a u.n. security council resolution in favor. we're not going to get the british parliament to change its vote, so if it's done, it's better done quickly and soon. >> simon? >> mr. ambassador, what does it mean for -- what does it mean for what would be the white house's allies on the ground in syria at the moment, the secular rebels? if they hear the president says there's no boots on the ground, they won't have an open-ended situation here and they will not intervene in the civil war, aren't those secular rebels
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likely to think, well, what future is there for us now without further american aid, we might have to align with al qaeda in order to survive this and have a shot at some power? >> i think that's what they already think four. i mean, i don't think they have any illusions right now about the obama administration's willingness tone tangle itself in this sectarian civil war that's raging, not just in syria but threatens tone gulf iraq and lebanon as well so i think they have made their calculations already based on that, but let's keep in mind that they don't have any great interest either of hard line extremists come to power. let's start working our way through the markets and see what the reaction is starting with gold and jackie deangelis at the
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nymex. >> gold closing under $1,400 an ounce, and what was interesting is we did see a little possible in the precious metal in response to the comments coming out of washington from secretary kerry. at the same time, the traders downstairs telling me that what the markets were looking for, they saw a little bit of safe haven buying just into the close there, but then we saw gold retreat before the close and the reaction to the comments is that you're seeing either way a little bit of certainty. at least we know where we stand in terms of the situation in syria. that was one of the unknowns keeping people on edge today, but a couple of things to be watching for next week. any new indication that we get on what is going to happen with the fed and qe, of course, impacting gold prices and the jobs number as well. some end of the month stats which are interesting to note. we saw gold up 6.5% this month, but silver by far the best outperformer of 21.3%, even though it was the worst performer on the day. sue and simon. >> thanks very much, jackie. let's go to the nasdaq and check
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on those trades with seema mody. >> nasdaq down about 25 points on the day as traders assess the situation in syria. some of the biggest losers on the nasdaq are in the internet space, ebay, amazon, yoof and trading in negative territory and the market is still outperforming. some of the big winners in august, netflix, dell as well as facebook. shares up as much as 10% in the month of august and the stock could trend higher as it expands its share in the social media space. samsung might be coming out with a mobile device and apple is expected to unveiling its newest iphone on september 10. we'll have to continue to watch those two stocks. simon, sue, back over to you. >> the overall stock market acts has been fascinating during the
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course of the last hour. we were down about 45 minutes on the dow when the secretary of state began to speak. we then plunged down to a loss of over 70 points and then rallied really quite strongly. >> interesting to see what happens, and it all goes along with secretary kerry's speech, by and large. he started talking very tough, talking about the obligations for the u.s. to act and at the end he temper what had he would be saying and here's the key words talking about a limited and tailored response. that's when you saw the markets begin to move to the upside. he said the primary objective is diplomatic -- is the diplomatic process, and he says we know there is no ultimate military solution. that's when the market moved up towards the highs of the day though the dow didn't break into positive territory and you can see essentially it's been moving sideways. the big debate on the floor is not what would happen if there was a short protracted short strike, but what would happen if it was protracted and say two weeks from now the u.s. was still involved in some kind of
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efforts in -- in attacking syria, and that's when the sectors issues comes in, so we clearly see oil would move up, energy stocks moving to the upside. today they are flat. materials stocks are moving to the downside and we would see rallies and defensive names like utilities and consumer staples. none of this is happening today, but this is the kind of thing worrying the markets, that they cannot effectively contain it if in fact they go in. so now a lot of footing is where do we go two weeks from now assuming that they actually go ahead. >> thank you, bob. let's bring in steve grasso who has also joined us here on the floor of the new york stock exchange. steve, it's been well said on the network, people have brought a lot of protection over the last week coming into this. >> as they should have. but there's no solace given to the marketplace going into a three-day weekend. people are just as nervous right now as they were before he started to speak. i think bob hit it. he came out so aggressive when he first started speaking. that's why you saw the market tick down t.sounded to me as if
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he was going to say we're ready to do it alone, ready to go it alone and that's not the case and why the markets backed off. >> my impression is that he is ready to go it alone. he hasn't got the united nations or the brits on board. >> definitely a sales pitch, global sales pitch, and i think he did an excellent job at what he was trying to succeed at, but i think that it's still going to make the markets pretty skittish. you saw how the s&p just flirted with that low of the week, and i think -- >> isn't it normally the case that he might make the case for what's to be done and then the president will walk out after it's been launched and say i have order x, y and z? >> it could be that that could be the case very well indeed but the problem is he came out so aggressive and then backed off of that so i don't know if the next thing to happen is the president to come out, but i will tell you that everything across the board, defense stocks, everything got smacked when he started speaking.
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no place to hide. >> i'm with you, simon. he made it very clearly. we will make our own decisions on our own time lines. >> sounds open ended to me, doesn't it? when you make a red line statement and then you say we'll make our own decisions on our own time line, that's definitely backtracking off something that's going to happen this weekend. now you can tell the marketplace that. >> interesting. >> you can tell the marketplace that, but at the end of the day people are going to vote or weigh their opinion with their stocks, and i think they are probably doing that. >> given that, there's obviously a difference of opinion between those who think that he basically laid out the case for the u.s. going its own, as the syrian -- u.s. ambassador to syria said earlier. he thinks he's saying this the u.s. is going it alow. steve, you disagree. how do you position yourself in this market? what's the best trade going into what is now seemingly a quite uncertain three-day long weekend with no trading on monday? >> sue, when you look at it, first of all, three-day weekends
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make investors skittish. >> exactly. >> so at this point i would say i really have to hedge yourself, and i would trim, even though we're at really the lows that we've seen, that we haven't seen in quite some time, the market has got a chunk taken out of it. would i say do whatever makes yourself sleep better for this weekend because i -- i would assume that it's going to be an extremely volatile next couple of days. >> steve, thank you very much. steve grasso joining us and our very own bob pisani. sue, back to you. >> we'll talk about retirement, switching gears. we'll still follow the situation developing in syria, but is buying shares in your employer the right move for your 401(k) retirement plan? we have some new data that may surprise you coming up next. plus, can money take you from worst to first? we'll ask the president and part owner of the l.a. dodgers baseball team about that very topic. (announcer) scottrade knows our clients trade and invest their own way. with scottrade's smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online
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kayla tausche is here with more. what's going on. >> reporter: banks have been experimenting with charges for what they are calling premium service, and now that service could include seeing a teller. at pittsburgh-based pnc, the virtual wallet account which sinks its bank account across all the platforms will add a $7 monthly charge in december for customers that use the branch. while pnc sources say it's one way to add a revenue stream it's a problem for many customers on twitter often complaining the app or the site is down. capital one, customer's 360 account, won't be recognized in the branch, though i'm told that's because of the integration of the internet bank ing which was the brains behind that acouch. one person familiar with it said some people would rather book a praen ticket on expedia and would prefer to speak to some on the phone to do it. accounts for customers on the go noting this is not a traditional account but not all banks that have rolled these out have been successful. bank of america discontinued its
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e-banking account saying customers want their option of using a teller and in three years e-banking which charged 8.95 per transaction made up 10% of new accounts, and that number was dropping. sue, customers say if they wanted a free account they would use a crownoff. use a big bank with a big branch network because one of the perks is access to it. >> are the banks turning into the airlines nickel and diming their customers to death? neil weinberg joins us and editor-in-chief of bankers. is that your interpretation as well? sure seems that way. >> they are doing the nickel and diming in different ways. charging for overdraft fees, and the problems the banks have give away the accounts for free and try to make it up on the back end. as banking is changing dramatically from a bricks and the mortar business to an electronics business online, smartphones, they have to figure out how to do this. and some banks, for example, can
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you take a picture of a check. most banks are letting you do that for free, deposit a check with an smartphone and some banks are charging $1 for this so a time of experimentation with how they are delivering the services and also how they charging for the services and making a buck. >> does seem like you get the come on with a free checking account or free savings account or a free credit card and then on the back end you get stuck with it so if you don't listen to that rapid fast disclaimer that you hear on the radio, you're stuck with a lot of fees. >> sue, i think it's important to know that in a lot of these accounts because the noam clay sure is e-banking, virtual wallet and 360 degrees, a lot of fees are very transparent and they tell you up front what you're getting is an online account or tech-only account. can you still call a 24/7 representative on the phone, live chat them on the website but if you have a complicated problem and need to go in person your account will incur that fee. i'm not one to come to the
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defense here but a these fees are very well laid out. the problem is a lot of banks don't want to be the first mover. every bank would like to be able to charge for an in-person face-to-face teller trans, a, but they are worried and we talk to customers who said, listen, if every bank did this we wouldn't be able to avoid it but if only my bank was charging me to talk to a teller they will change banks. >> neil, the consumer also has to do their homeworks if everything is laid out and you just choose to focus on the free part of it and not read the other part of it, that's your fault. >> absolutely, it is, and i think the banks are doing a reasonably good job of disclosing this. also a question of convenience. it might be here in a place like new york city where there's a bank branch owner corner. you're not willing to spend $1 to deposit a check, but if you're living out in the midwest where the bank is 12 miles away it may well be worth it, well
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less than the gas it will cost. part it disclosure and doing yoer your homework and part is make choices. for the banks it's deciding what the customers will pay for. when bank of america tried to impose a $5 monthly fee on its debied cards, there was a huge cry and now banks are just experimenting like the airlines. a yeasiate it very much. >> is loading up your 401(k) with stock from your own employer the right move? the practice has actually been on the decline according to morningstar. despite that the research firm says it expected to find that employer stock-heavy 401(k)s would be outperforming those more broadly invested across the market. turns out that's not the case. according to morningstar's david blanchard. >> i just kind of assume that individuals that chose to buy
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their company stock in the 401(k) would be doing so because they had kind of extra information. they kind of knew that their employer was a good buy and i was surprised when the reverse was true whereby the companies that did have that high allocation to employer stock in the 401(k) underperformed going forward. >> in fact, morningstar found that 184 companies with 401(k)s had at least 20% invested in their own company stock. publix supermarket topped the list and chevron and lowe's plans more than 50%. the report suggests capping stock offering, sue, at 20%. >> very interesting. all right. can money take you from worst to first? jane wells is live at dodgers stadium in los angeles. hey, janie. >> hey, sue. money can buy you talent, but can it buy you a world series
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and when will the massive investment the dodgers' new owners will start to pay off? that and more in 30 seconds. before the break we posed the question can money take you from worst to first? well, last year the dodgers payroll was middle of the pack at $90 million. this year they have the top payroll at a whopping 220 million, more than the yankees, we believe. jane wells is at dodgers stadium with a man who can confirm all
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of that. janie? >> reporter: hi, i'm with club president stan castin. is your payroll the highest? >> depending on how figure, it it's one and two? you said ticket prices have gone from 40 to 68. based on tic iq. >> our tickets have never been more valuable to some people reselling our tickets but this year we didn't raise our prices. this year on a season ticket it was possible to come to a game for as low as 5 bucks a game and because that have our season tickets, which last year were at 17,000, now jump to 32,000 season tickets and we lead baseball once again. our support is fantastic. >> howe are you making money? >> we have a long-term strategy and like the way things are going. when we make the investments, it will pay off in tikt prices and has dogs and coax and sponsorship and media partners.
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all of those things are coming online. we're very happy about the path that we're on. >> reporter: people thought you guys completely overpaid for this team, over $2 billion, ridiculous. now you have a tv channel coming online, potentially i've heard 5 billion to 7 billion. when do the lines cross for guggenheim and the other investors? >> we made a calculation about the kind of support we would get from fans and sponsors. we get accusedch things a lot. people thought we were nuts when we signed puigoryo. as long as we're performing on the field and delivering for our customers showing up in record numbers we feel really good about the progress so far. >> reporter: how much powder do you have that's dry? will you really not interested in robinson cano, seriously in. >> we're always planning to improve the team and the experience and our work within the community. these are things we think about every day. we have no intention of stopping any time soon but we really like
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the team that we have and in the off-season we see if there's anything else we need. >> reporter: will you make a run at cano? >> we'll look at what we have and whatever option we'll consider things. as you know, we're not allowed to talk about individual players and never would. >> reporter: what are you going to do about this stadium? one of the oldest in baseball but people will lie down in the street if you try to do something about. >> we have done something about it and they are flocking here. we've expanded concourses and concessions and adding bars, rest rooms, fantastic scoreboards that we have out there. >> reporter: it's rough -- it's been 25 years since kirk gibson, last year in the world series, the amazing home run. >> apparently it's good enough for the league leading attendance in all of baseball and they had a good index for me we're on the right track. >> reporter: thank you very much for joining us. >> don't change the dodger dog. don't touch the dodger dog. >> reporter: and they brought
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were. in today's yahoo! finance question of the day, with the dow and s&p 500 on track for the worst month in more than a year, what's your investor strategy? >> 20% say i'm taking money off the table, 18% putting money on the table and 62%, simon, say i'm holding steady. >> other news this lunchtime
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radio broadcaster cumulus media is close to buying dial global, one of the country's largest syndicators of radio programming. big lots beat the street, reporting a profit of 31 cents a share in the latest quarter, seven cents above estimates, but the company is lowering its full-year outlook because of weaker sales. energy producer apache is selling a minority stake in its egypt oil operations to china to 3.1 billion. the move will clearly help apache reduce its exposure. still ahead, which sectors sizled this summer? we'll tell you next. iro ] at le, you can take care of virtually all your important legal matters in just minutes. protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.
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so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. the computer is on. >> we're down 35 points on thedown. we do now believe that the white house is moving towards military action. no question in syria after john kerry effectively addressed the nation saying it mattered if nothing was done after the intelligence community saw high confidence in the evidence that the assad regime in syria was responsible for chemical weapons. therefore, we know at probably
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at some point there will be a no boots on the ground no, open-ended style intervention, sue. the real question is when. what is interesting is the degree of sobriety of the market heading into that. people are presumably pretty well positioned for this. >> we would assume that is the case. indeed, we did see a big whipsaw during the secretary of state's address, as you know, i'm o. we saw a flight into the ten-year yield and that pushed interest rates down. that has steadied out since, but we did see a big move into the ten-year on that address. in addition to that, we saw a flight into the yen which has been a safe haven play. the ten-year yield of 2.75. that's the dollar verse yts yen and the dollar is down a quarter of a percent. it was down almost half a percent at its worst levels of the trading day. in addition to that as steve grasso mentioned, we did see the defense stocks on the move during and after the secretary of state's address. northrop grumman is down .66%
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and raytheon off a third of a%. >> for those of you waiting for news on the best sectors so far this august, consumer discretionary did extremely well in a market that's down about 4% on the dow. there you go. it's not spectacular, but it was in essence, of course, a poor month for the markets. >> have a good long weekend. do does it for "power lunch." "street signs" begins right now. >> absolutely, right now. are we just days or even hours away from launching a mile of strike against syria? less than an hour ago secretary of state john kerry made more strong statements about syria and its use of chemical weapons against its own people. america preparing for what would likely be a unilateral action. the market is spooked, mandy, heading into the long holiday weekend and it's really going to be a weekend and perhaps the entire month of september fraught one certainty. >> welcome to our viewers around the world. let's go straight to the white house and our very own john harwood. the secry

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